Wednesday, September 16, 2015

"The Oldest Boy" ☼ ☼ ☼

A great play carries you into another world, messes with your preconceptions, makes you first uncomfortable and then exultant as you figure out how you feel about this new world into which you've been allowed a two hour journey. Act One of Sarah Ruhl's "The Oldest Boy" does all of that, as the young mother, played exuberantly by Christine Albright, is presented with a terrible choice. As the intermission curtain falls we have no idea what she will do to protect her son, Tenzin. The problem is, we know exactly what we would do and we're pretty sure she's not going to listen to us.

Two Buddhist priests, one a lama (Jinn S. Kim) and one a monk (Wayne Lee), have come to an unnamed American city to seek out Tenzin, who is only three years old but has been identified by the monks as the reincarnation of their holy teacher. They wish to take the boy from his parents and bring him back to India to teach him to become a lama. To them, this is the noblest undertaking for any man. Tenzin's father (Kurt Uy), who is Tibetan, obviously sides with the monks, to his wife's horror and dismay.

Then comes Act Two. Time has passed and the mom is pregnant again and she has decided to allow Tenzin to go with the monks. The family is now in India, where the mom has her baby (in a scene stylized to the point of banality) and finally comes to her decision. This is where plot points and production decisions bog down the narrative. Does the little boy, who is represented by a puppet for most of the play, actually become one of the older monks...or his reincarnated earlier self…or...? Why does this American child, voiced by actor Tsering Dorjee, speak with a Tibetan accent? Is it true that we, as Westerners, who are said to treat our own parents as convenience items, utilizing them as baby-sitters then dumping them into old-folks homes when they are no longer useful, can never really comprehend the selfless ways of Tibetan Buddhists?

We love the boy puppet, as well as the intriguing decision to use puppetry in the first place (apparently Ruhl specifies puppet or marionette), and of course this is a Sarah Ruhl play so there are many meaningful lines, as well as a touching love scene over a sink filled with dirty dishes. If, as the mom says, "To say good morning is easy, to say good night is hard," then we must agree. This story is so involving that if they shore up the ending we, the audience, will find refuge in both.

RATINGS: ☼ ☼ ☼

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division awards "The Oldest Boy" Three Stars. This represents Four Stars for Act One and less for Act Two. Special credit to the production team here -- lights, music, staging and set, all brilliant.

As a reviewer, I'm like everyone else: I want to see the light. I want to be lifted out of my seat and into the world of the performance. When the new 'My Fair Lady' comes along I want to rush out and tell you about it. When the show comes up short, I want to figure out why.

In San Francisco, we are blessed with world-class premiere houses, astonishingly good local companies and excellent regional theater. But theater tickets cost real money. I want you to feel a little more secure before you punch BUY.

EXPLANATION OF NEW IMPROVED RATINGS SYSTEM

Our Ratings System has been revamped! Half Stars have been eliminated. Capitalized BANGLES of PRAISE and italicized baubles of despair take their place.

BANGLES are good, and the more the merrier. A ☼ ☼ ☼ BANG BANG rating is better than a ☼ ☼ ☼ BANG rating.

baubles are bad. A ☼ ☼ ☼ baub baub rating is worse than a ☼ ☼ ☼ baub rating. A ☼ ☼ ☼ baub would drop the show below ☼ ☼ ☼, which is the coveted Julie Andrews Line. Below the Julie Andrews Line we recommend you do not spend your Do, Re or Mi.

Note that using this system, a ☼ ☼ BANG is roughly the same as a ☼ ☼ ☼ baub. Neither would be recommended.

A ☼ ☼ ☼ show must have something excellent about it, and it has to involve the story. Great acting helps, terrific staging too. But it's got to be in the writing and the actors have to bring the story alive. It can be big or small, short or long. Just don't bore us. If you do: No Julie Andrews.

☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ are rare. For a show to earn this rating, it must not only be very good but it must also move us. We need to grow during those two acts plus intermission and we need to be surprised. The author must make us go "AH-HAH! THAT'S what he was getting at!" He must tell a perfect story and the actors must deliver. Uproarious, drooling laughter will always help. Deadening angst plus hopeless and depressing poverty makes it harder.

☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ are practically impossible. They probably need to involve amazing music and a set you can't take your eyes off in addition to everything else that makes up a Four Star production. In Plotnik's 10 years of reviewing theater in the Bay Area, he has given ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ to only one show: Jersey Boys. And it didn't hurt that Frankie Valli was in the audience on Opening Night and tottered up onto stage to hug the actor portraying him.

We hope our NEW IMPROVED awards system adds to your enjoyments. Please contact me if you feel I have forgotten something obvious. I am in Spain, where it is raining.

Henry Higgins

BANG An especially fine moment

baub A particularly irritating moment

Something incomprehensible, where you scratch your chin and go "Waa-huhhh?"

L-R Special category for David Mamet and Sam Shepard plays. Amount of times you squirm in your seat.